Can you guess where we have been??

A couple of weeks ago we went to Orlando for several days.  This was our first trip there since Aidan was 2 and at that time we only visited Sea World.  We felt the kids were at a good age to go and they were!  We had a blast and hit all four Disney parks, spent time at Downtown Disney (especially at the Lego store ... Aidan was in heaven), ate at Rainforest Cafe and the T-Rex restaurants and came home exhausted!!!  Here are several pics from our trip ...

Aidan and Keenan near the Indiana Jones Adventure at Hollywood Studios

Our favorite day was probably at Epcot.  We spent the entire day there and enjoyed so, so many things there.  Stitch greeted the kids and this was just the beginning of the many characters we got to see. 

Keenan holding the world on his finger.

 The highlight of the entire trip for Bella was getting to meet Tinkerbell.  That is ALL we heard about for days before we got there.  She was in awe!

 The boys goofing around in Norway.

 Bella with Mulan

Aidan holding the Epcot ball in his hands.

M-I-C-K-E-Y  M-O-U-S-E

 We were at Epcot during the flower festival and it was gorgeous!  Here is Bella with Tinkerbell.

 Had to take a picture of this.  Everest Expedition, the roller coaster at Animal Kingdom is in the background.  This was Aidan's first roller coaster and he loved it!!

Bella passed out and lounging back in her stroller - check out the open mouth.  She reminds me of how my grandma used to sleep.

All three with Rafiki

 Bella posing in front of Rainforest Cafe

Aidan snapped this pic of Michael and I ... I think it is the only one of the 2 of us we got the entire trip.

 Family pic at the Magic Kingdom

With my princess

Happy Easter!!

Every time I post I swear I won't wait as long to post again, but then even more time passes by.  So, I won't make any promises of when I will post again, but here is a snapshot of what has been happening in our lives so far this Spring!!!

Easter morning - my three blessings ...

 Aidan showing off one of his Easter presents - I am not even sure if he knows who Michael Jordan is - ha!

 Bella reaching for an egg ... how did it get up there?

 Keenan is so proud of his new basketball - he says he has "moves" now.

Family pic

Everyone came to our house to celebrate Easter.  The rain held off and we had a great afternoon enjoying fellowship, good food and one of the largest Easter eggs hunts around.  Here are all of the kids (Bella, Addyson, Ashlynn, Aidan, Keenan and Hunter).

 Keenan with his best buddy, Hunter (it was also his 5th birthday!)

We have also been back into sports this spring.  Well, when it isn't raining.  Keenan is playing T-ball again and would rather just hit the ball all day and not have to field it.  Aidan is back into soccer and is learning what it is like to play on some cold and nasty days.  We are all having fun and enjoying watch them when we can.

I also just completed my first 5K a couple of weeks ago.  This is a HUGE deal for me because I have NEVER been a runner.  I started the couch to 5K training program a few months ago and when I started couldn't run a lap (seriously).  Anyway, I ran in the Race for the Cure with my wonderful family.  We did it in honor of my precious grandma Alice, who passed away from breast cancer 14 years ago.  There were 40,000 who participated.  We had a blast and now I can't wait to do another one!

Here is the group (minus me).  Janel, Thomas, Jeremy, my mom Natalie, Tom, Tiffany, Alyssa, Will and Addyson. 

Part of my grandmother's legacy ... Janel, mom, me, Alyssa, Tiffany, Addyson.

Random Photos

This blog for us is a way to capture what has been going on in our lives throughout the year.  I haven't been able to keep up with it like I would like to, but here is a little bit about what we have been up to over the past month.

We have had so much snow this year!  The kids have had snow day after snow day.  They enjoy it, but I am ready for the snow to end and for Spring to appear!  We have had a lot of fun and have taken advantage of some of the time off indoors and out.

Evening with friends - the kids were rockin' it out!  (Btw, this is Bella's boyfriend, Bryson.  They adore each other ... it is just too cute!)

 Emy with all of the ladies of the house (Bella, Lily, Lola and Eva)

Michael gave me tickets to see the Blue Man Group for Christmas.  They performed at IU last week and we ventured out in the ice storm to see the show.  The show was amazing and we stayed in another beautiful Bed & Breakfast.  We even got to visit our favorite winery and visit with my sister Janel who is a student there.

Here is the fountain outside the winery.

Michael and the boys have been skiing almost every weekend this winter.  This is Aidan's 5th year skiing and Keenan's 2nd year.  Keenan is now taking on the black diamond slopes along with his big brother and daddy.  They LOVE going and can't wait to get back out on the slopes each weekend.

On MLK Day, we went to the Newport Aquarium with some of our new friends from our neighborhood.  I did not get many pictures because the place was packed that day, but here are a couple of my three kiddos posing for me.

 And as I was going through pics to post, I found this one that I took last February of Bella.  My, how she has grown and changed!  She is still as sweet and loving as ever, but she has become the boss of the house.  She is little miss independent and tells us to "stop" and often does not want our help with things.  She is proving just how much she can do on her own now.  She can say so many words now, but we still are working on her putting multiple words together in sentences.  She has a tendency to leave off the ending of words and rush through her speech.  She is amazing at putting puzzles together; knows all her letters; is doing simple maze puzzles; and is starting to learn how to write the letters of her name (as well as others).  I know I always say this, but when I look back, I really see how much she has changed in the last 6 months ... year ... and since she joined our family a year and a half ago!

What we have been up to

We have had a wonderful few weeks and cannot believe our break is over already! But when I look back at all that we have done, I feel so blessed ... and tired. Wow, what a whirlwind it has been.  We were able to spend time with friends and family; celebrate Christmas, New Year's and Bella's birthday; enjoy time off from work and school; and Michael and I were even able to get away for a night at a B&B (which was wonderful!).  Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks ...

The college "gang" ... loved spending a great evening with them!

Just the girls ... and 2 babies on the way.

Another night, we met up with some friends for dinner and then went back to our friend's home so the kids could play and we could visit.

Bella, Eva and Josie.  Josie was such a great sport and the girls are both such cuties.

With all of the snow, we actually had a white Christmas this year!  The boys enjoyed some time outside sledding with our neighbors.  We have lived in our new house for 5 months and feel so blessed to be surrounded by such great neighbors and new friends.  We even had several of the kids over one day during break and decorated lots of cookies.  The kids all had a blast and so did us mommies.

The Garland Family Christmas.  One of the most awesome things about this picture is that 5 of these precious kiddos are adopted.  And another one was missing - praying you are feeling better, Andrew!

I don't have any Christmas morning pics right now because we had to take pics with a different camera (we left our camera at my sister's house - perfect time to do that.  Ugh!)  Anyway, here are a couple of pics from Gram's house.  The kids were all spoiled rotten as usual!

Aidan and Keenan and their new remote controlled vehicles. 

Keean was so worn out that he passed out on Gram's lap.  He LOVES to have his back rubbed and Grams loves holding him to do so.

Bella with Grandma and Grandpa ... playing her iXL, which she loves!

Bella also celebrated her birthday New Year's Eve.  We had a low-key family party.  Here she is with her cousin, Emy.  Emy and Bella dressed up all day and truly pretended they were princesses.

 Bella with her butterfly cake.  The funny thing about this is that she sang "Happy Birthday" to herself.

Happy 2011!  Praying it will be a great year for everyone!!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

The Christmas tree is up, the lights are on the bushes outside, the manger scene is on the mantle and the wreath is on the front door.  The Christmas cards have been ordered and most of the shopping is done.  We even woke up to snow on the ground this morning.  It is beautiful and has been snowing all day long.  The snow came just in time for Keenan's Christmas program at preschool.  He was so cute in it.  He loves songs and music and he did great!  We are so blessed to have found another amazing Christian preschool for both he and Bella since our move.  Their teachers are wonderful!

We also went to my work today to attend breakfast with Santa.  The kids had a blast!!  They got to see a performance by the MadCap Puppets, play games, eat breakfast, get a "tattoo", make an ornament, decorate cookies and even have a visit with Santa.  Santa had a great sense of humor today.  He asked all three kiddos what they wanted for Christmas.  Keenan told Santa he wanted a DS and Santa said, "Really, you just want the letters 'd' and 's" and no other letters?"  It was cute, but Keenan is now a bit concerned that he is only going to get letters for Christmas. 

Keenan decorating his cookie

Aidan and Keenan making their ornaments

    Family pic

 The kids with Santa 

Part of the event this morning included a toy and food drive for local families and the kids each took a toy and we took a bag of food as well. As a family, we are always trying to find ways to show the kids how to share God's love with others by giving and helping out.  We especially want them to know that Christmas is not just about them getting toys.

Here is a picture of Keenan's list for Christmas. I just have to share because it is such a cute story. Keenan is learning to write and read words right now. He can't spell, so when he and Aidan were writing their lists, he kept asking me how to spell the items he wanted to include on his list one letter at a time. Well, it got time for Bella to go to bed, so I told him that he could look at the pictures in the magazines and that under each picture the black bold letters spells what the item is. He continued with his list. Several days later I noticed that his list had things written on the front and back of it. One side had the few items that he wants and on the other side I saw this ... Michael and I just cracked up at this! What it is supposed to say is "Temporary Price Cut".

And here is a pic of Aidan's list ...

We have lots of plans this Christmas, including visiting the Creation Museum's Christmas Town, going to a local farm for a Christmas walk and live nativity, going downtown to see the trains and do our yearly ritual, and spending lots of time celebrating our Savior's birth with family and friends.  I hope to post a couple more times this month, so stay tuned!

Bella posing in front of a Christmas tree